Summary

The goal of the study was to contribute to the knowledge on COVID-19 inequities and identify population groups and communities at greater risk for adverse COVID-19 outcomes.

The researchers used patient-level longitudinal electronic health records from a cohort of patients in the HealthShare Exchange (HSX) Clinical Data Repository linked to neighborhood-level data for several socioeconomic and built environment characteristics. They assessed whether individual- and neighborhood-level indicators of Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) predicted COVID-19 hospitalization and deaths in a large and diverse cohort of patients.

The researchers also identified and validated a set of indicators of SDOH that could be used to guide policy by identifying communities at high risk of exposure to and adverse outcomes from COVID-19, including poor and minoritized groups.

Research

Mullachery PH, Bilal U, Li R, McClure LA. Area-Level Social Vulnerability and Severe COVID-19: A Case-Control Study Using Electronic Health Records from Multiple Health Systems in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Region. J Urban Health. 2024 Aug;101(4):845-855. doi: 10.1007/s11524-024-00876-6. Epub 2024 May 13. PMID: 38740710; PMCID: PMC11329477.

Acknowledgements

Research Team:

• Pricila Mullachery, PhD, MPH, Principal Investigator 
• Usama Bilal, MD, PhD, MPH, PhD, Co-Investigator 
• Leslie McClure, PhD, MS, Co-Investigator 
• Ran Li, MS, Analytics Engineer

Partners:

• HealthShare Exchange (HSX)

This project is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Health Data for Action (HD4A) program, managed by AcademyHealth.